Fire

I’ve written quite a lot about water, floods, and people lost at sea. Being a small island in an unusually wet and stormy year I suppose that is not unusual. In the summer, or in dry months when there has been no rain for a long period we do get the occasional moorland or heathland fire. These fires would rage in areas far from towns or cities, and destructive as they are, it is rare that lives are put at risk.

I heard on the news this morning, and have just caught up on the BBC website that there are terrible fires raging in Tasmania; I have never been there but I have a connection, my great-grandfather was born there and it is a place I would love to visit. The temperature in Hobart has been 41° and now fires have taken hold; thousands of people have had to flee their homes, some are stranded on a beach awaiting rescue and a flotilla of boats are rescuing them.

Fire must be the most terrible thing, even the tiniest flame can hurt… floods are awful, but water in itself is benign, and however bad the flood or disastrous the ship-wreck, there is always the chance,a slim chance maybe, but a chance of rescue or deliverance. A raging fire, rampaging towards your property or you, trapped in a car or on foot… I cannot imagine anything worse.